Okay, this is an oldie but just what I need as a refresher – sharpen my color mixing of lighter skin tones. I started this painting several months ago. I took a break from it, but for various reasons I never got back to it. I think I may have some footage (twitch live stream) of me painting. I’ll have to dig through my folders to confirm, but if I do I’ll post it.

The reference is from pixabay. I highly recommend pixabay for ideas/inspiration. I was looking for exotic landscapes to paint, something in the eastern part of the world when I stumble upon this adorable picture of a Cambodian child. Instantly, I knew I had to do a painting of this child. (See the inline links for the reference.)

I won’t stay faithful to the reference, as usual, I always diverge a little. I have cropped the image, really focusing on his/hers features. Originally, I was going for highly representational painting, but this time around I think I might do things differently. I guess we’ll see!

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Greetings everyone!
This charcoal under-drawing was done on artist loft canvas panel, nothing too expensive. In fact, I recommend cheap canvas panels for beginners. Please don’t spend a lot of money on your substrate if you are just starting oil painting. You are going to making plenty of mistakes and throwing away (hopefully reusing if you can) plenty of studies.

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I am using Dura-lar film matte surface as my substrate. It has just enough tooth to hold the graphite. It is difficult to get rich dark marks with pencils, however you can use other media to achieve that. This leads into why I love using this substrate. You can use multiple wet and dry media on the surface, like oils, gesso, and acrylics. I have not tried pastels, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. I look forward to experiment more with this surface and sharing my results.

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A color study of Simon Vouet “Sleeping Venus”. Simon Vouet (1590-1649) was a french painter that was heavily influenced by the Italian Baroque style of painting. To know more about him and his works of art please visit wikipedia

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“Don’t bother about whether or not you have it [talent]. Just assume that you do, and then forget about it. Talent is a word we use after someone has become accomplished. There is no way to detect it before the fact … or to predict when or if mastery will click into place.”